Choirs sing, candles and incense burn, and all the people stand in reverence along the route. A bullfight is usually a feature of a saint's day too, with the whole town going to the Plaza de Toros to watch. The paseo will be especially gay at fiesta time, and as darkness falls, the guitars will start to twang, castanets will click and all the young people will gather in the main square to take part in folk dances until morning. Sometimes the saint's fiesta will last a whole week, with bullfights every afternoon and a fair every night.
One of the most unusual fiestas in all Spain is held every March in Valencia in honor of St. Joseph. It is called the "Fallas de San José" because of the huge, grotesque figures called "fallas" which are the main feature of the celebration. Every club and religious group in the city spends weeks in advance of St. Joseph's Day building these figures out of papier-màché, and each group tries to keep its design secret until the fiesta takes place. The best falla wins a prize, and at the end of the three-day celebration, all the fallas except the prize-winner are burned in a big bonfire while the people dance around it and fireworks are shot into the sky.
Of all holidays, Christmas is one of the merriest in Spanish homes. "Noche Buena," or Christmas Eve, is a time for families to sit down to a wonderful feast. The mothers and older sisters of the family have been preparing this feast for months, and fathers have been collecting the best Spanish wines to store away until now. Turkey is the traditional dish at Spanish Christmas dinners just as it is here. But Christmas is one of the few times turkey is ever served in most Spanish homes, so it is really a special treat.
Spicy hams, stuffed roast lamb, and special fish dishes are also served with the roast turkey. And no Christmas table would be complete without "turrones"—a candy made of honey and almonds, something like our nougats. Dried figs and grapes, walnuts and hazelnuts load the table even more. After dinner, the family goes to midnight services at church called "Misa de Gallo"; then they come home and celebrate until morning.
There are no Christmas trees in Spain, but each family makes its own Nativity scene, which is set out in time for Christmas Eve. In some cities contests are held for the most beautiful "Belen" scenes, as they are called, because "Belen" is the way Spanish people say Bethlehem. On Christmas Day everybody goes calling to see the Belens in other people's houses.
Sometimes grownups exchange gifts on Christmas Day, but Spanish children don't receive their gifts until January 6, Three King's Day. Instead of Santa Claus, the Three Wise Men, Melchior, Gaspar and Balthasar leave gifts in the children's shoes. The shoes are set out in a window or near the fireplace, filled with hay so the camels of the Three Kings may feast. In the morning the hay is gone and toys, nuts, fruit and candy have taken its place.
Holy Week, the week starting with Palm Sunday and ending with Easter, is another important time in Spanish life. On Palm Sunday, everyone throughout the country has palm branches from Elche, an old town where the only palm grove in Europe grows. After carrying the branches in processions through the streets and into the churches and cathedrals, people hang them on the balconies of their houses, where they remain until the fresh palm branches of the next year replace them.
The most colorful celebration of Holy Week is held in Seville, a city in sunny Andalusia. Every night there are processions of robed and hooded men moving silently through streets lined with thousands of men, women and children. All the figures of saints and Madonnas from all the churches and the Cathedral are carried in one procession or another. The figures are dressed in costly vestments and jewels, and the procession is lighted by flickering torches and candles. As the figures pass beneath balconies crowded with watchers, a singer will suddenly break into a spontaneous, unaccompanied song, called a "saeta," to salute the saint being carried by. The saeta is the same sort of song the Moors used to sing when they lived in Seville and other cities in Andalusia, and today it is usually sung by gypsies, thousands of whom live here.
Night after night these processions go on, until Good Friday, when the most gorgeous one of all starts at 3 o'clock in the morning. This is the procession of the Virgin of Macarena, the patron saint of bullfighters and all Seville. The Virgin is dressed up in robes of silver and gold and wears jewels given by famous bullfighters and wealthy people. The men who march in this procession wear costumes of rich red and gold, and there is an honor guard dressed like ancient Roman centurions. The "Macarena" is the most popular saint in Seville, and everyone watches her procession until it takes her back to her shrine in the gypsy section, Triana, followed by thousands of gaily clad gypsies who spend the rest of the night singing and dancing to the throbbing of guitars.